Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

This entire novel consists of a discussion between two friends—one who just returned from Europe, the other a young accountant—about a grand birthday party neither one was able to attend. This doesn't stop them from swapping stories and hypotheses, which balloon into a riveting depiction of the complexities of life, especially at the dawn of Argentina's Dirty War.

Review

"Argentinian Saer (1937  2005) sets his novel during a walk through the streets of a seaside Argentinian city in the early '60s with a conversation comprising memories, images, and digressions in the mode of Proust and Laurence Sterne. Two characters meet in the street and walk together while discussing Washington Noriega's 65th birthday party, which neither of them attended. The elegant aristocratic Mathematician missed the soiree because he was in Europe; the plebeian Angel Leto wasn't invited. The two men veer off topic to consider the behavior of mosquitoes and whether a horse can stumble, frivolous subjects that contrast with visions of Argentina's harsh political turmoil that would occur in the near future when the mathematician's wife will be killed and Leto will disappear, suicide pill in hand. Saer reaches deep into the psychology of his characters, yet for all his skill, the streams of consciousness become arduous as does identifyingÂ with the characters on an emotional level. Think Berman film, difficult but worth the effort. (Nov.) Five-time Pushcart-winner Burgin (Ghost Quartet) straddles the psychological thriller and modern literary genres with mixed results. Nearing the end of his university teaching contract, Elliot Martin renews ties with Barry Auer, his independently wealthy childhood friend. Six years before, Elliot and Barry fell out over the literary magazine they'd tried to create, using Barry's money. Now, they decide to revive their grand project, and Elliot moves into Barry's spacious New York apartment. Elliot soon falls in love with Cheri, a pretty, blond painter. That Barry becomes enamored with Cheri is a minor problem; a far worse problem is Barry's dark alter ego, the homicidal sex deviant 'Gordon Green.' When one of his victims survives and attempts to expose him, Barry/Gordon's behavior grows increasingly erratic, causing Elliot and Cheri, still unaware of his hidden life, to worry. And when Elliot announces his intention to marry Cheri, Barry goes off the deep end, putting Cheri in grave danger. While the stuffy, pretentious milieu of the Big Apple's art circles is satirized to scathing effect, long stretches of flat dialogue encumber much of the suspense that Burgin works so hard to build. (Nov.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright PWyxz LLC)

Review

"In this brilliant novel, the Argentine writer Saer packs several decades of his countrys history into a single hour ... With meticulous prose, rendered by Dolphs translation into propulsive English, Saers novel captures the wilderness of human experience in all its variety, as well as the blind, incomprehensible, ceaseless drift” of time."Jascha Hoffman, The New York Times

"The Sixty-Five Years of Washington is worth working throughnot only for the richness of its content but also because the effort itself is what gives us a three-dimensional understanding of its themes."Suzanne Marie Hopcroft, The Rogue Idea

"...Phenomenal, demonstrating a dazzling unification of form and function."Scott Bryan Wilson, Rain Taxi

"But while some of those sentences are long enough to rival Prousts, they are infused with a palpitating sensuality, their breathing equally crafted. A cerebral explorer of the problems of narrative in the wake of Joyce and Woolf, of Borges, Rulfo and Arlt, Saer is also a stunning poet of place."Lorna Scott Fox, The Nation

Synopsis

Saers The Sixty-Five Years of Washington is simultaneously a brilliant comedy about memory, narrative, time, and death and a moving narrative about the lost generations of an Argentina that was perpetually on the verge of collapse.

Synopsis

"With meticulous prose, rendered by Dolph's translation into propulsive English, Saer's The Sixty-Five Years of Washington captures the wilderness of human experience in all its variety."--New York Times

It's October 1960, say, or 1961, in a seaside Argentinian city named Santa Fe, and The Mathematician--wealthy, elegant, educated, dressed from head to toe in white--is just back from a grand tour of Europe. He's on his way to drop off a press release about the trip to the papers when he runs into Angel Leto, a relative newcomer to Santa Fe who does some accounting, but who this morning has decided to wander the town rather than go to work.

One day soon, The Mathematician will disappear into exile after his wife's assassination, and Leto will vanish into the guerrilla underground, clutching his suicide pill like a talisman. But for now, they settle into a long conversation about the events of Washington Noriega's sixty-fifth birthday--a party neither of them attended.

Saer's The Sixty-Five Years of Washington is simultaneously a brilliant comedy about memory, narrative, time, and death and a moving narrative about the lost generations of an Argentina that was perpetually on the verge of collapse.

Juan Jose Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including Scars and La Grande), Saer was awarded Spain's prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event.

Steve Dolph is the founder of Calque, a journal of literature in translation. His translation of Juan Jose Saer's Scars was a finalist for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award.

Synopsis

Two friends muse and hypothesize about the grand birthday they missed in the years before Argentina's Dirty War.

About the Author

Juan José Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including Scars and La Grande), Saer was awarded Spains prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event.

Steve Dolph is the founder of Calque, a journal of literature in translation. His translation of Juan José Saer's Scars was a finalist for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award.